
# Notes on the "Social and Political Philosophy" lectures

This is a series of lectures recorded by the Rochester Institute of Techonology.
Here is the
[playlist](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcmaziH9sW6PFy1IiiBKOLdhifFMC2uwa)
containing all of the lecutres.

## Lecture 1 - Introduction

- What is philosophy (seeking clear cut answers)

- A good theory requires translation into the practical.

- Science begins where philosophy ends, that is whenever we (or possibly the
  experts on a certain field) reach a consensus regarding some topic. Agreement
  turns turns philosophical inquires into scientific ones. What seems here,
  thought is not made explicit, is that philosophy deals with foundational
  issues which, if unsolved, impede us from getting to the scientific inquires.
  This, in turn, seems to paint science as a process of refining knowledge, a
  second step after the initial philosophical debate.

- The european tradition regarding the social sciences tends to be more
  philosophical as evidenced by the nature of the questions they pose, which far
  more fundamental and difficult to enquire in empirical fashion. On the other
  hand, the american tradition seeks the exact opposite, concerning themselves
  we questions that we can provide concrete answers too.

- In August Comte view, the development of human knowdledge followed a sequence
  of stages (mythology, religion and metaphysics, that is, philosophy), that
  eventually culminated on science. Therefore, then, all of this others manners
  of dealing with knowledge should be removed in favor of science, since it wass
  superior. For advancing this positivist (so named because the evolution of
  though is *positive*, that is, it improves), he is regarded as the father of
  modern sociology.

  Commically, though, the mere advancement of his positivist (and
  anti-philosophical) view, is, paradoxically, a philosophical stance. After
  all, his conclusion is not borne out of empirically acquired evidence, but
  culmination of the application of reasoning, of, therefore, philosophical
  method.

## Lecture 2 - Plato

- In the Republic, Plato deems justice as the wishes of the stronger.
